When fueling airplanes at the loading/unloading aprons of major airports, fuel is usually supplied at substantial pressure by underground mains to fuel hydrants located at each apron. A fuel cart is rolled up to the airplane and is hooked between the nearest fuel hydrant and the fuel filler connection on the airplane.
The cart performs several services ancillary to providing and transferring fuel. For example, a fuel cart has hose reels, filters, water separators, and a flow meter to measure the quantity of fuel, boarded on the aircraft, for billing purposes. Many of these and other ancillary services require the availability of compressed air and/or primary power.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,324,840, issued Dec. 4, 2001, to Owen Watkins of General Transervice Inc., Coatsville, Pa., discloses a bulk fuel delivery system for operating a fluid driven power source at a constant speed. This patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
As discussed in the Watkins' patent, the bulk fuel delivery system includes a fluid driven power source for operating auxiliary instrumentation, such as an air compressor and an alternator. Several flow monitors and valves are linked by fuel control lines. The flow monitors track the fluid flow rates and adjust the valves to regulate the flow rate through the fluid driven power source.
The present invention provides an improved fuel delivery system, by the same inventor, that includes a fluid driven power source operated at constant speed.